Only an idiot Ike would allow himself to be gimped by a large variety of moves effortlessly. In fact, that goes for all the characters. There are only two characters that can effortlessly gimp Ike: Metaknight(duh) and Samus(Z-air). Every other character has to actually work to gimp him.
Lucario (Aura Sphere > Aether/Quick Draw), Kirby (Inhale, Dair, Bair), Pikachu (Thunder Jolt, Thunder), Fox (Shine, Bair), Wolf (Lasers, Bair, Dair), everyone else (Fsmash to Edgehog, Airdodge Quick Draw, Neutral B, Fair, Bair, Dair, Nair). The fact is that Ike's recovery sucks. Don't try to cover it up by saying that only two characters can "effortlessly gimp" him (which is false). Anyone can just hug the edge when he does Aether, or pop out a projectile when he rears his head above the stage, or simply smash his face in or airdodge when he does Quick Draw. He falls fast, his recovery moves are extremely punishable and VERY easy to prevent. If you just knock him out of his second jump, he is literally unable to recover, unlike most other people with useful Up B moves. The fact that Aether can't sweetspot the ledge on its way up is also a huge problem, since even if he IS in sweetspot range, he can just get knocked back out again by anything if the person is too lazy to just hug the edge.
In Brawl, there are four heavily underrated characters: Ike, Sonic, Link, and Mario. You guys should stop complaining about so-and-so character should be lower and start working on ways to get Mario higher. The characters who deserve to be lower will in due time.
Ike is underrated by many people, and has quite a few things going for him, but the truth is that his weaknesses are just way too easy to exploit if you play smartly. He deserves low tier, which is exactly where he would be if the tier list was divided into more categories. Sonic isn't that underrated. I've fought good Sonics before, and I can tell you that they can be a tough cookie to crack: but only until you get the timing on knocking him out of the spin dash. Once you have that timing, Sonic is absolutely TOAST. Sonic will do well against opponents until they start realizing that "Hey! Wait a second! This guy has no priority! How about I jab the air so that he rams into it so I can continue my assault?" Sonic will surprise your opponents, but only to a point. Once they have experience with the matchup, pretty much ANYONE can **** Sonic. Link, I'm not really sure about, but his recovery really is THAT bad. Mario? Perhaps. Super Jump Punch doesn't have the greatest distance, but it has a ton of priority and a very large sweetspot. He does have a problem if he doesn't have his double jump, and he doesn't have too many recovery options, but that shouldn't be his main problem. I personally believe that his main problem is that he was meant to be balanced. By forcefully balancing him out, they unfortunately did the opposite, since compared to the other characters in the roster, he really isn't that good.
Not to go off-topic but I think Ness is also underrated since he is so low in the character rankings and people don't use his up-B very well.
Ness I'm actually torn on. On one hand, he has the grab-release problem, a completely unreliable Up B recovery, and he has a hard time getting kills if he can't land that grab. On the other hand, he has great combo potential, the strongest throw in the game, the most powerful spike (at low %) and some nice aerial priority.
Personally, I think he should be in the lower section of the real mid tier. <<
) I'm going to enter as Mario. Wish me luck, everyone!
